233. The Goy Who Threw A Rock At The Baal Shem Tov

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. I'm gonna share with you a short story. A story about the Baal Shem Tov that was told by the great tzadik, Reb Simcha Bunim of Peshischera. The Rebbe of Peshischera was the Rebbe of the Kotzker Rebbe. This story was heard from Reb Bunim of Peshischera by his Talmud, Reb Shmuel of Shineva, and he wrote it in his Sefer. It says, uh, Reb Bunim of Peshischera told the story of the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov, as we know, when he was young, he didn't, uh, tell anybody about himself. Nobody knew who he was. People thought he was like a just simple person, not learned, and he was busy being a helper in a cheder for teachers, for a, for a rebbe, for a teacher. And he would ta- take the kids home from cheder and bring them to, to, to cheder. He would say berachos with them, teach them how to say amen. He was like a helper, a helper of a teacher. And people looked at him and thought he was just a, this simple guy who doesn't know much, but he's good at helping a teacher. That's all he can do. And that's what he did for a number of years. While he was a helper, he needed a place to stay. That was before, when he was still young, before he got married. So he stayed in a house of a certain Jew who lived in that town. So he maybe rented, uh, his room, and he would

01:55 go out during the day, he would help take the kids from their homes. He would gather the kids and bring them to cheder, and then at the end of the day, bring them back, and that what he did every day. One day, his host, the person who he had the room from in his house, told him that he's going to see a, a famous Rav. He's going to a Rav. So Baal Shem Tov also wanted to go there, and he asked him, "Can I go with you to this Rav?" But the host said no, he doesn't want. He doesn't want. "You, you have to stay here." So the Baal Shem Tov wanted to go, so he didn't tell the host. But when the host went onto his wagon, the Baal Shem Tov hopped on the back of the wagon. There was a piece of board that stuck out from the wagon, and the Baal Shem Tov sort of secretly got onto that board without the, the host, um, who owned the wagon would, would, didn't notice. And Baal Shem Tov, this way he was hitching a ride with him to this Rav. Not exactly sure why the Baal Shem Tov wanted to go to this Rav, but that's what he wanted. On the way, they passed a certain village, and the Baal Shem Tov was sitting on a board sticking out outside the wagon, and a young goy, like a, a teenager, saw the Baal Shem Tov, a Jew. So he picked up a rock

03:26 and threw it very, very hard to the Baal Shem Tov, and it caused... It hit the Baal Shem Tov, and it caused him to bleed. Can you imagine causing the Baal Shem Tov to bleed? But the Baal Shem Tov just wiped off the blood. I guess he took care of it, of the wound, and they kept dri- riding to the, to this Rav. When they finished there by the Rav, they decided to go back. So the, the Baal Shem Tov again hopped onto the back, onto the board, and they rode back to the, to the way they lived. On the way back, they're passing again this same village, and they see that there's a huge group of people, peasants, Goyim, Russian peasants, that are gathered together, and they're on the road, and they can't pa-- they don't let them pass by. So the, the, the asked the, the Goyim why are they gathered together here, and why don't they let them travel through the, the, through the village. So they said, because there's this young goy, this young guy, a teenager, who is stuck to the ground, and his feet are sinking in the ground slowly, deeper and deeper. Very slowly, he's sinking in the ground, and they can't pull him out. Something strange is happening to him. And they found out that he threw a rock at this Jew in the back of your wagon. It was the Baal Shem Tov, and caused him to bleed, and they think that maybe it has something

05:08 to do with that. Maybe he's being punished by Hashem or something for hurting the Baal Shem Tov. So they asked the Baal Shem to... They asked the Baal Shem Tov, "Can you please help us and give us some advice how we can save this boy?" So Baal Shem Tov went off the board from the wagon, walked over to where this young teenage goy was sinking in the ground, and he said to him, "Do you promise you'll never throw rocks at another Jew in your entire life?" And he couldn't speak because he was sinking in his hole. He couldn't s-- his speech was gone. So he just nodded with his head, like saying, "Yes, yes, yes." And as soon as he said yes, the Baal Shem Tov said, "You can take him out now." And they took him out, and everything was fine. Everything was fine, and the Baal Shem Tov and his host traveled back to the city, to where they came from. Now, the Baal Shem Tov didn't want anybody to know that he's a tzaddik and he can make miracles and nesim. And here he had no choice, that the Goyim wouldn't let him travel, so he had to make a miracle and show them that, you know, that this Goy was being punished because he, he threw a rock at him, and then how he made a nes that suddenly they could take him out. He was-- So the Baal Shem Tov, you know, didn't think about it and pretended like nothing

06:45 happened, and he continued to behave like he's just a helper of a, of a teacher, of a melamed. And surprise, nobody... The, the, the Balagola, the guy, I mean, he saw everything, but he forgot. And the Baal Shem Tov was able to go back to his life as a simple person, and nobody even noticed this, this miracle, this nes that the Baal Shem Tov just performed. And the Baal Shem Tov also didn't think about it, and everything was forgotten. So Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev said, "There's a miracle. Of course, the Baal Shem Tov made a, uh-- performed a big miracle. But the biggest miracle is that after he did this, it was completely forgotten, and even the Goyim forgot about it." Can you imagine if they had remembered what the Baal Shem Tov did? The, the Goy would have come to the... Where the Baal Shem Tov lived, and they would come and ask him for their brachos every time a child is sick. They would come to him as a holy person to, to g- to make a miracle for them. You know, as they did, uh, later on when the Baal Shem Tov became famous. Even the Goyim used to come to him. But here, Hashem made a nes that they forgot it, so the Baal Shem Tov could continue to be a, a simple person or pretend to be a simple person. Nobody would notice that there's something special about him. The Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev says, "This is a

08:13 bigger miracle, that ev- everybody forgot."